king

a male sovereign prince who is the official ruler of an independent state; monarch related adjectives royal regal monarchical

2.

a ruler or chief: king of the fairies

(in combination): the pirate king

3.

a person, animal, or thing considered as the best or most important of its kind

(as modifier): a king bull

4.

any of four playing cards in a pack, one for each suit, bearing the picture of a king

5.

the most important chess piece, although theoretically the weakest, being able to move only one square at a time in any direction See also check (sense 30), checkmate

6.

(draughts) a piece that has moved entirely across the board and has been crowned, after which it may move backwards as well as forwards

7.

king of kings

God

a title of any of various oriental monarchs

verb (transitive)

8.

to make (someone) a king

9.

king it, to act in a superior fashion

Derived Forms

kinghood, nounkingless, adjectivekinglike, adjective

Word Origin

Old English cyning; related to Old High German kunig king, Danish konge

King

/kɪŋ/

noun

1.

B.B., real name Riley B. King. born 1925, US blues singer and guitarist

2.

Billie Jean (née Moffitt). born 1943, US tennis player: winner of twelve Grand Slam singles titles, including Wimbledon (1966–68, 1972–73, and 1975) and the US Open (1967, 1971–72, and 1974)

3.

Martin Luther. 1929–68, US Baptist minister and civil-rights leader. He advocated nonviolence in his campaigns against the segregation of Black people in the South: assassinated: Nobel Peace Prize 1964

4.

Stephen (Edwin). born 1947, US writer esp of horror novels; his books, many of which have been filmed, include Carrie (1974), The Shining (1977), Misery (1988), and Everything's Eventual (2002)

king

n.

Old English cyning "king, ruler," from Proto-Germanic *kuninggaz (cf. Dutch koning, Old Norse konungr, Danish konge, Old Saxon and Old High German kuning, Middle High German künic, German König). Possibly related to Old English cynn "family, race" (see kin), making a king originally a "leader of the people;" or from a related root suggesting "noble birth," making a king originally "one who descended from noble birth." The sociological and ideological implications render this a topic of much debate.

As leon is the king of bestes. [John Gower, "Confessio Amantis," 1390]

In Old English, used for names of chiefs of Anglian and Saxon tribes or clans, then of the states they founded. Also extended to British and Danish chiefs they fought. The chess piece so called from early 15c.; the playing card from 1560s; use in checkers/draughts first recorded 1820. Applied in nature to species deemed remarkably big or dominant (e.g. king crab, 1690s). In marketing, king-size is from 1939, originally of cigarettes.

[I]t was [Eugene] Field who haunted the declining years of Creston Clarke with his review of that actor's Lear. ... Said he, "Mr. Clarke played the King all the evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace." ["Theatre Magazine," January 1922]

king

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.Cite This Source

m. l. king in the Bible

is in Scripture very generally used to denote one invested with authority, whether extensive or limited. There were thirty-one kings in Canaan (Josh. 12:9, 24), whom Joshua subdued. Adonibezek subdued seventy kings (Judg. 1:7). In the New Testament the Roman emperor is spoken of as a king (1 Pet. 2:13, 17); and Herod Antipas, who was only a tetrarch, is also called a king (Matt. 14:9; Mark 6:22). This title is applied to God (1 Tim. 1:17), and to Christ, the Son of God (1 Tim. 6:15, 16; Matt. 27:11). The people of God are also called "kings" (Dan. 7:22, 27; Matt. 19:28; Rev. 1:6, etc.). Death is called the "king of terrors" (Job 18:14). Jehovah was the sole King of the Jewish nation (1 Sam. 8:7; Isa. 33:22). But there came a time in the history of that people when a king was demanded, that they might be like other nations (1 Sam. 8:5). The prophet Samuel remonstrated with them, but the people cried out, "Nay, but we will have a king over us." The misconduct of Samuel's sons was the immediate cause of this demand. The Hebrew kings did not rule in their own right, nor in name of the people who had chosen them, but partly as servants and partly as representatives of Jehovah, the true King of Israel (1 Sam. 10:1). The limits of the king's power were prescribed (1 Sam. 10:25). The officers of his court were, (1) the recorder or remembrancer (2 Sam. 8:16; 1 Kings 4:3); (2) the scribe (2 Sam. 8:17; 20:25); (3) the officer over the house, the chief steward (Isa. 22:15); (4) the "king's friend," a confidential companion (1 Kings 4:5); (5) the keeper of the wardrobe (2 Kings 22:14); (6) captain of the bodyguard (2 Sam. 20:23); (7) officers over the king's treasures, etc. (1 Chr. 27:25-31); (8) commander-in-chief of the army (1 Chr. 27:34); (9) the royal counsellor (1 Chr. 27:32; 2 Sam. 16:20-23). (For catalogue of kings of Israel and Judah see chronological table in Appendix.)